Mettasuttaṃ [AN 7.62, PTS 4.89–4.91]

9.

The Discourse on Friendliness

62. "Do not, monks, be afraid of merits. This, monks, is a designation for happiness, namely merits. I directly know indeed, monks, that for merits performed over a long time, for a long time I experienced a desirable, lovely, agreeable result. For seven years I developed a mind of friendliness. Having developed a mind of friendliness for seven years, for seven cosmic cycles of universe-contraction and expansion I did not come back again to this world. When the world was contracting, monks, I was one who reached the Radiant realm; when the world was expanding, I was reborn in an empty Brahma-mansion.

"There indeed, monks, I was Brahmā, the Great Brahmā, the Overlord, the Unvanquished, the All-Seeing, the Wielder of Power. Thirty-six times indeed, monks, I was Sakka, the lord of the gods; many hundreds of times I was a king, a wheel-turning monarch, a righteous king of righteousness, ruler of the four quarters, victorious, who had established the security of his realm, possessed of the seven treasures. I had, monks, these seven treasures, as follows - the wheel treasure, the elephant treasure, the horse treasure, the jewel treasure, the woman treasure, the householder treasure, and the adviser treasure as the seventh. And I had, monks, more than a thousand sons, brave, heroic in form, crushers of enemy armies. He dwelt having conquered this earth bounded by the ocean, without rod, without sword, by righteousness."